wastebasket
"wastebasket" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“wastebasket” is uncommon English (frequency #86,938 among 12,113 “W” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #86,938
- frequency rank, English
- 12,113
- “W” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A usually small indoor receptacle for items that are to be discarded; a rubbish bin.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | wastebasket |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #86,938 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “wastebasket” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
wastebasket is uncommon English at frequency #86,938 among 12,113 “W” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for wastebasket in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From waste + basket. The correct English form is wastebasket, spelled W-A-S-T-E-B-A-S-K-E-T.
Definition
- 1A usually small indoor receptacle for items that are to be discarded; a rubbish bin.
- 2Any region or grouping that is worthless or meaningless.
Etymology
From waste + basket.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "wastebasket"?
What does "wastebasket" mean?
What is the origin of the word "wastebasket"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “wastebasket”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-A-S-T-E-B-A-S-K-E-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.